Gasoline Price Impact Exaggerated

“Top of the Island” spokesperson says fuel costs for vacation travel less than generally presumed.

Dingwall, Nova Scotia, June 28, 2008

Brian Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for the “Top of the Island”, a tourism promotion organization based on the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, today stated that a study of travel costs conducted by the group indicates that the recent gasoline price increase will have a minimal effect on the overall price of a family vacation to the region.

“While it’s true that none of us likes paying higher gasoline prices, it’s also true that increases in the price of fuel have far less impact in the overall cost of a family vacation than one might imagine”, Fitzgerald stated. “For example”, he continued, “our studies indicate that an increase of $1.25 U.S. per U.S. gallon adds less than 5% to the total expenses for a family of four travelling round-trip from Boston to Northern Cape Breton for a two-week vacation full of indoor and outdoor activities. Furthermore, gasoline prices are only approximately 10-15% of the total cost of the trip, and in many cases operators of visitor services are offering packaging deals that reduce the costs of the some of the remaining expenses.”

Fitzgerald also noted that, by contrast, a mid-summer cruise for the same family for a similar period of time would cost more than double the total expenses of the auto trip from southern New England to northern Cape Breton.

“All things considered, northern Cape Breton is still a highly competitive world class destination for families seeking a vacation that combines rich cultural traditions with incomparable mountains-meeting-ocean scenery, and this is confirmed by the numbers of visitors we’ve seen to date this summer. After all, where else can one see moose, whales, eagles and bagpipers all on the same day?” he added.

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